Contest Entries
by nellabean
Summary: Just as the title suggests, this is a collection of contest entries. Chapter 1: TheAlmightyFireHawk's Contest - Boy's Don't Cry. T.


**So, this is my entry for TheAlmightyFireHawk's contest who by the way is simply too awesome for words! Seriously, go check out her stories! **

**I'm not too satisfied with this story at all. It was quite rushed and last-minute but I think I deserve a congratulations here anyhow because I've actually finished something I've set out to do. And that's hella rare for me! **

**Anyway, the contest called for a tragedy, and violence was encouraged! I did a lot of thinking, and this is the best my brain could churn out. I cut out a lot, because it was pretty long to begin with. **

**Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! **

* * *

Boys Don't Cry

"Okay boys, on the count of three, you're both going to run across the warehouse and out that door. Keep running through the woods in one direction, and you'll eventually have to reach somewhere you can go for help. Keep your heads low, be quick, don't lose sight of each other for even one second, and don't, whatever you do… don't look back."

A middle-aged woman crouched behind an industrial crate in an otherwise empty warehouse. Her crimson hair fell straight and gently whipped the small of her back as she tossed her head from side to side, examining the premises that would be cloaked in complete nightshade if it weren't for the metallic light of the moon seeping through long ago smashed windows. On either side of her were two boys who shared an uncanny resemblance to each other with their reptilian eyes and snow white hair.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you to do?" she interrogated.

On her right, the older of the two clenched his jaw and nodded, setting his gaze on the door across the warehouse that suddenly seemed to retreat even further away, yet on her left, the younger whimpered.

"Mom? Aren't you coming with us? They'll catch you if you stay here!"

"Better they catch me then my two sons, Ryuto," she told him without meeting his watering eyes.

Ryuto didn't like the answer he was given. He hunched his back and huddled into his mother, clutching her leather jacket in his trembling fists and shaking his head furiously. "No!"

A crystal tear slowly graced the tanned skin of her cheek, not for the remorse of her own demise which she knew was lurking ever closer as seconds drew by, but for the pain of what she was about to have to put her son's through. Gently, but firmly she pried Ryuto's hands off her jacket and nudged him away. "Don't cry," she told him. "Boys don't cry."

The older brother reached around the back of his mother and wrapped his fist around Ryuto's arm wordlessly. He was afraid that if he should move his face enough so much as to speak, he would be defying his own mother's command and the tears would flow without faltering.

"They're down here," called a rugged voice from somewhere in the warehouse. "Hold your ground men, don't get soft. We have orders to kill the children and the woman on sighting."

She turned to the older, hiding her fear well. "Ryuga, don't let him out of your sight."

He refused to look at her as the footsteps of no less than twenty heavily armed men grew ever closer.

"One," she began.

"No Mom!" cried Ryuto as he tried to squirm out of Ryuga's grip.

"Two."

Ryuga stiffened and prepared his stance, ready to make a run for it as soon as that last number left her lips. Left those same lips that had kissed his forehead goodnight after many a bedtime story, and spoken the words of wisdom and encouragement that had shaped the young man he had become.

"Three!"

Ryuga heaved his brother along side him, dragging him more or less, and they went for the door. At the same time, their mother pounced out into the other direction, and they could hear the sound of her preparing her heat as she let her gun's barrel click.

They got to the large metal door and Ryuga opened it, not even thinking about how much stronger he had become due to the sudden adrenaline pumping through his body. He could never usually move something this heavy. And then, the thought came to him, as Ryuto struggled and squirmed. He stopped at the door, turned around and went to advance backwards. Went to at least_ try_ to save his mother.

He wished he'd just kept running like she'd told him to. For his own sake, and his little brother's memories.

In horror the two brother's watched as their mother held her ground. The enemy's numbers dropped dramatically, but she was soon swamped in a matter of seconds. Two men held her by the arms as another connected the barrel of his gun to her temple. She looked to her sons, and they could find no trace of fear in her amber eyes. Yet Ryuga couldn't shake the feeling that she held some form of disappointment towards him. She had told him not to look back, after all and now he knew why.

Slowly, she began to mouth a final message to her sons. "I love y-"

Silenced instantly by the thundering clap of a firearm, the last word never left her lips.

Ryuga clenched his eyes shut and kept running like he knew he should have done in the first place.

"I love you too, mother."

While Ryuto's screaming carried out into the woods, Ryuga bit back his tears.

Boys don't cry.

* * *

Eventually, Ryuga grew too tired to keep running. He needed a rest, even just for a moment, so he was careful not to go off the trail too far and went alongside a fallen tree. He set his brother down next to him and sat, staring at Ryuto who simply collapsed onto the ground. He curled up into the fetal position, still sobbing hysterically.

"Stop crying, Ryuto," he ordered coldly, but he finally understood his mother's actions earlier when she had pushed Ryuto away from her. Showing him sympathy would only make things worse, tough love was the only way to go in such dire situations.

Ryuto lifted himself onto his hands and knees, and tried to drag himself back in the direction they had come.

"What are you doing?" Ryuga questioned as he watched the boy muster all the energy he might have had left in his smaller body and slowly crawl.

"If you're not going back for mom, then I'll have to," he spat back. "You left her in there. She's probably hurt real bad, I gotta go save her."

"Ryuto, she's dead."

Ryuga didn't know why he was whispering.

He ignored him. "Wait here and I'll bring her back and then we'll all get out of here."

Ryuga snapped. He launched himself out of his kneeling position, grabbed his brother and threw him on his back, pinning him to the long dead leaves underneath them.

"Didn't you hear me?" he roared as he lent down towards his brother's face. "I told you she's dead. If you go back, you'll only be wasting her life, she gave it up for us, you dumb idiot! Didn't you see it happen? They shot her down, she's dead and she ain't comin' back!"

Ryuto turned his head to the side. "You're lying, she's still alive." But Ryuga could tell Ryuto knew he was the only one telling lies here.

He sighed and his breath softly ruffled the red streak in his brother's hair. The red that was a genetic gift from their mother. "We both saw it. We both saw the light leave her eyes…"

With a softer tone now, he moved off his brother and pulled him up too, tugging his body into his own. Ryuto seemed to have given up the fight when he laid his head on Ryuga's shoulder and listened to his brother's voice as he spoke.

"You think that's just an expression, right? '_Saw the light leave her eyes_'," Ryuga let a small chuckle rumble in the back of his throat. "An expression only given so that the person mourning could illustrate their pain for you a little more. Try to get you to sympathize with them... But it's not just an expression, is it Ryuto? It's far from it."

He lifted his brother's head a little so as to look at his once so pure and innocent face, now shadowed with grief. "For instance, right now, there is a gleam of light in your eyes that nobody notices until it's gone. But you never miss it once you've seen it fade, do you? I won't let that light leave your eyes. Not tonight. Not ever."

It seemed like a stupid promise, but Ryuga meant every word of it at that moment.

They sat there together in silence for a while. With his head so confused, it was hard to keep track of time, but the moon had moved a fair amount since Ryuga had last looked up at the stars so he presumed that they were there for more time than they had to waste.

Deciding that they'd better get moving again, Ryuga gripped his brother's arm attempting to pull him over his shoulder but Ryuto shuffled away, determined to stand on his own. Ryuga gave him a questioning glance, but Ryuto stared straight ahead and clenched his fists. "I can run on my own," he said sternly.

Ryuga remembered the promise he had made to his mother, the promise that he would not lose sight of Ryuto. He was prepared to let him use his own legs, but he grabbed his wrist to ensure that the boy would trail no farther from him than he would allow.

And so they kept running. They ran for what felt like hours. Ran until they thought their hearts would explode, the muscles in their legs would tear and until they were sure they were about to pass out from exhaustion.

Suddenly, Ryuto tripped over a fallen branch and sent Ryuga tumbling down with him. Down, down, down a slightly steep dip in the terrain that they probably would have fallen down anyway had Ryuto not tripped.

Ryuga lay on the damp ground covered in leaves and took a moment to clear his head before feeling around in the darkness. "Dammit, Ryuto," he grumbled. "Where the hell are you?"

"Right here."

The answer was delivered by an unknown voice. Unknown, yet still Ryuga knew it meant terrible, terrible danger. He glanced up and laid eyes on a towering figure standing a little way away from where Ryuga himself lay.

The man, dressed in complete darkness that surely could be compared to the darkness of his heart, held Ryuto by the hair and lifted him a good two feet off the ground. Ryuto gripped at the man's hands, kicking and struggling as he tried to free himself.

"Ryuto!" Ryuga gasped. He launched himself off the ground and went to attack, but when the stranger pulled an object into view, Ryuga stopped in his tracks. The chrome of the object reflected the moonlight and twinkled. It was a gun, a real pocket rocket of a 9 mm, and the barrel was held threateningly close to Ryuto's skull.

Once Ryuto felt the cold metal make contact with his temple, fear overtook the boy. His screaming wailed into the night, repeating over and over again, "Ryuga! Help me, do something. Don't let him kill me, I don't want him to kill me. Help me, help me, _help me_!"

More than anything, Ryuga wanted to run forward and grab his brother out of that monster's claws and make a run for it. In his head, a million methods of doing the task buzzed through, but the next words spoken put a stop to all of that.

"Come any closer, kid, and I'll shoot."

Now came the question; was Ryuga about to admit defeat? Was he about to submit to this person's orders and roll over like a dominated dog?

Yes. Yes he would.

Presented with the threat of another dead family member, Ryuga's pride seemed insignificant. He would have jumped if this guy told him to.

He dropped to his knees and let his chin touch his chest. A sign of giving in. "I'll do whatever you want. Please, just let him go."

The stranger's reaction surprised Ryuga enough to make him look up again.

"Tsk, tsk," he taunted. "How many times have you gotta do this, master? How many times have I got to put you through this until you learn?"

"Master? Until I learn? What the hell are you talking about? Let my brother go and take me!"

Sighing, the stranger pulled Ryuto even higher and tilted his head back.

"Ryuga! Help me!"

Ryuga heard the click as the barrel of the gun rolled. And then…

"Ryug-"

**BANG!**

Ryuto's lifeless body hit the ground with a thud. Ryuga stared in disbelief, trembling, shaking… In front of him, lay his little brother's body. He wasn't moving, he wasn't screaming anymore. His face stared up at Ryuga and he stared back into those lifeless eyes that used to be so full of wonder, awe, and a light that could never be matched by the brightest rays of the sun on the clearest days of summer. But now, there was no wonder, there was no awe, and most definitely, there was no light. The light had left his eyes like the last dying embers of a wildfire, banishing its surroundings to an eternal darkness.

Ryuga held his clawed hands out in front of him, not really knowing what to do. He made some strange sort of half scream, half gasp, and then he stumbled forward on his knees and collapsed over his brother's body. But, he did not cry.

The man clothed in black approached Ryuga and kicked at his side gently. "Get up."

Ryuga didn't answer. He was too busy trying to keep at least one promise. He had betrayed his brother and let him die, but he would not betray his mother. "Boys don't cry…" he whispered. "Boys don't cry."

He felt the stranger kneel down beside him, and if he was about to kill him too, Ryuga didn't give a damn. But instead, he put his hand on Ryuga's shoulder. However the comforting gesture was soon erased by the sensation of cool metal making contact with Ryuga's own skull.

"Aw, kid. Maybe next time, huh?"

He glanced up into the stranger's face. "N-next time?"

Another loud bang signaled the death of a third Kishatu.

* * *

"Monsieur Doji, how many more timez do you intend to repeat ziz stage in Master Ryuga's training?"

"Until he get's it right, Merci. Simple as that."

A man donning in an expensive looking purple suit spoke to a security camera as they both looked upon an unconscious body lying comatosed in a tablet.

"If he truly is capable of harnessing L-Drago's full power, he must not carry with him any feelings of mercy or love. This method of training is to erase such emotions. This stimulation should do the trick, but he always seems to give in at the part where we have programmed his brother's death."

"Surely, ziz treatment is extreme?" If it were possible for robots to feel pity, then surely, Merci's voice portrayed exactly that.

"Extreme training makes extreme subjects. Once he completes this last training process, he will be ready. Don't worry Merci, he won't remember any of this artificial reality, just as he won't remember any of his memories of his living brother and deceased mother."

"May I ask, Monsieur, what did you do with hiz sibling?"

"The Ryuto boy? We tried training him alongside Ryuga but he didn't even make it past the first training sessions. Therefore, he proved himself useless to us. I erased his memory, replaced it with synthetic memories and released him. It would be quite troublesome if he were to remember anything he saw here at the Dark Nebula, don't you think?"

Merci remained silent.

"Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for him, Merci?"

"No, no," Merci recollected almost too quickly. "Should I replay the stimulation?"

"Yes, please do. I've got a feeling that we'll get it right next time"


End file.
